Barclays Initiates Coverage on W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC)

Barclays started coverage on shares of W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an equal weight rating and a $40.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of W. P. Carey in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Raymond James lowered shares of W. P. Carey from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on W. P. Carey from $66.00 to $61.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on W. P. Carey from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of W. P. Carey from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $63.36.

W. P. Carey Price Performance

WPC opened at $56.44 on Wednesday. W. P. Carey has a fifty-two week low of $51.36 and a fifty-two week high of $78.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.13 and a 200 day moving average of $59.10. The firm has a market cap of $12.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.86.

W. P. Carey (NYSE:WPC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $410.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $413.04 million. W. P. Carey had a net margin of 40.68% and a return on equity of 7.78%. W. P. Carey’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that W. P. Carey will post 4.57 EPS for the current year.

W. P. Carey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.865 per share. This is a positive change from W. P. Carey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $3.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.13%. W. P. Carey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 104.85%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. P. Carey

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,784,040 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,995,114,000 after acquiring an additional 657,188 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in W. P. Carey by 1.6% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,618,194 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,055,165,000 after buying an additional 244,527 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. P. Carey by 91.9% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,290,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $731,800,000 after purchasing an additional 5,407,289 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of W. P. Carey by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,228,412 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $802,831,000 after buying an additional 208,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in W. P. Carey by 46.1% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,558,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $507,966,000 after purchasing an additional 2,068,458 shares during the last quarter. 73.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. P. Carey Company Profile

W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,424 net lease properties covering approximately 173 million square feet and a portfolio of 89 self-storage operating properties as of December 31, 2023.